The present invention relates to disc storage devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for reducing head stiction between a disc and a head in a disc drive.
Disc drives are the primary devices employed for mass storage of computer programs and data used in computer systems. Within a disc drive, a load beam supports a hydrodynamic air bearing (or slider) proximate a rotating magnetic disc. The load beam supplies a downward force that counteracts the hydrodynamic lifting force developed by the air bearing. The slider carries a magnetic transducer for communicating with individual positions on the rotating magnetic disc.
As the areal density of hard disc drive products increases, there is a need for the flying height of the recording heads above the discs to be reduced, and concomitantly, for the discs"" smoothness to be increased. Increasing the smoothness of the discs, however, increases static friction and possibly dynamic friction and may accelerate wear at the head-disc interface (HDI).
The main approach for mitigating this xe2x80x9cstictionxe2x80x9d problem has been to apply a controlled amount of texture to the disc. Both random mechanically-applied and non-random laser-applied textures have been extensively used. This approach, however, is nearing its limits: as the disparity in surface roughness between the landing zone and data zone increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to design an air bearing which has acceptable flying characteristics in both regions. For example, a head which flies suitably low in the data zone will not fly in the rougher landing zone, and heavy contact (producing high friction and wear) may ensue.
Thus, there exists a need to provide a head/disc interface which further reduces stiction from the prior art in order to facilitate the high areal densities required by the advancing state of the art.
A disc drive includes a rotating disc with a disc surface and read/write circuitry for reading data from and writing data to the rotating disc. Further, the disc drive includes a controller for providing control signals. An actuator assembly is provided which is coupled to the controller and receives signals from the controller and provides actuation based upon the control signals. A head is coupled to the actuator assembly and operably coupled to the read/write circuitry. The head includes an air bearing surface having a protruding feature which is oriented in a non-parallel direction to a feature on the disc surface.